Name: eri's review of Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare
Item: Clockwork Princess
Rating: 5
Author: eri

 Cassandra Clare

  Danger and betrayal, love and loss, secrets and enchantment are woven together in the breathtaking finale to the #1 New York Times bestselling Infernal Devices Trilogy, prequel to the internationally bestselling Mortal Instruments series.

  THE INFERNAL DEVICES WILL NEVER STOP COMING

  A net of shadows begins to tighten around the Shadowhunters of the London Institute. Mortmain plans to use his Infernal Devices, an army of pitiless automatons, to destroy the Shadowhunters. He needs only one last item to complete his plan: he needs Tessa Gray.

  Charlotte Branwell, head of the London Institute, is desperate to find Mortmain before he strikes. But when Mortmain abducts Tessa, the boys who lay equal claim to her heart, Jem and Will, will do anything to save her. For though Tessa and Jem are now engaged, Will is as much in love with her as ever.

  As those who love Tessa rally to rescue her from Mortmain’s clutches, Tessa realizes that the only person who can save her is herself. But can a single girl, even one who can command the power of angels, face down an entire army?

  Danger and betrayal, secrets and enchantment, and the tangled threads of love and loss intertwine as the Shadowhunters are pushed to the very brink of destruction in the breathtaking conclusion to the Infernal Devices trilogy.

The Infernal Devices #3

Clockwork Princess

If the only way to save the world was to destroy what you loved most, would you do it? The clock is ticking. Everyone must choose. Passion. Power. Secrets. Enchantment. Danger closes in around the Shadowhunters in the third and final instalment of the bestselling Infernal Devices trilogy.

Sarah Campbell

Was there ever a more beautiful sound that your name? To speak it aloud makes my heart ring like a bell. Strange to imagine that, isn’t it — a heart ringing? But when you touch me, that is what it is like, as if my heart is ringing in my chest and the sound shivers down my veins and splinters my bones with joy. 

Why have I written these words in this book? Because of you. You taught me to love this book, where I have scorned it. 

When I read it for the second time, with an open mind and heart, I felt the most complete despair and envy of Syndey Carton — yes, Sydney, for even if he had no hope that the woman he loved would love him, at least he could tell her of his love. At least he could do something to prove his passion, even if that thing was to die. 

I would have chosen death for a chance to tell you the truth, Tessa, if I could have been assured that death would be my own. And that is why I envied Sydney, for he was free. 

And now at last I am free, and I can finally tell you, without fear of danger to you, all that I feel in my heart. 

You are the first dream, the only dream I ever was unable to stop myself from dreaming. You are the first dream of my soul, and from that dream I hope will come all other dreams, a lifetime's worth. 

😭 The true love story of this series. 

Ave dtque vale, Will thought. Hail and farewell. He had not given much thought to the words before, had never thought about why they were not just a farewell but also a greeting. Every meeting led to a parting, and so it would, as long as life was mortal. In every meeting there was some of the sorrow of parting, but in every parting there was some of the joy of meeting as well. 

“We spoke of how to say goodbye," Jem said. "When Jonathan bid farewell to David, he said, 'Go in peace, for as much as we have sworn, both of us, saying the Lord be between me and thee, forever.' They did not see each other again, but they did not forget. So it will be with us. When I am Brother Zachariah, when I no longer see the world with my human eyes, I will still be in some part the Jem you knew, and I will see you with the eyes of my heart. " 

“Wo men shi sheng si ji jiao," said Will, and he saw Jem's eyes widen, fractionally, and the spark of amusement inside them. Go in peace, James Carstairs." 

They stayed looking at each other for a long moment, and then Jem drew up his hood, leaving his face in shadow, and turned away. 

Jem must have seen something in Will's expression, for he paused. "How could I say farewell," he said, to you?" 

Will let the knife fall from his hand. It stuck, point-down, in the wood of the floor. "As Shadowhunters do? Ave atque vale. And forever, brother, hail and farewell." 

"But those are the words of death. Catullus spoke them over his brother's grave, did he not? Multas per gentes et multa per aequora vectus advenio has miseras, frater, ad inferias—“

Will knew the words. Through many waters borne, brother, I am come to thy sad grave, that I may give these last gifts to the dead. Forever and ever, brother, hail. Forever and ever, farewell. 

I say the tomb which on the dead is shut 

And what we here for the end of all things put 

The measure of love is to love without measure. 

—Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "In Memoriam A.H.H."

"Dw i'n dy garu di am byth," he said. "I love you. Always." And he moved to cover her body with his own.

—Algernon Charles Swinburne, "Laus Veneris

Now I will burn you back, I will burn you through,

Though I am damned for it we two will lie 

—Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "In Memoriam A.H.H"

—Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Lady Clara Vere de Vere"

For your cradle, your home, and your bier? 

—Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Lines: When the Lamp Is Shattered”

Let not light see my black and deep desires. 

Jem gave her a softly measured look. "I lived for you,” he said. "And I lived for Will, and then I lived for Tessa — and myself, because I wanted to be with her. But I cannot live for other people forever. No one can say that death found in me a willing comrade, or that I went easily. If you say you need me I will stay as long as I can for you. I will live for you and yours, and go down fighting death until I am worn away to bone and splinters. But it would not be my choice." 

Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep, 

He hath awaken'd from the dream of life: 

Tis we, who lost in stormy visions, keep 

And in mad trance, strike with our spirit's knife 

Like corpses in a chanel; fear and grief 

And cold hopes swarm like worms within our living clay. 

— Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats"

O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall 

Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap 

May who ne'er hung there. Nor does long our small 

Durance deal with that steep or deep. Here! creep, 

Wretch, under a comfort serves in a whirlwind: all 

Life death does end and each day dies with sleep. 

—Gerard Manley Hopkins, “No Worse, There Is None"

Is it, in Heav'n, a crime to love too well? 

To bear too tender, or too firm a heart, 

Is there no bright reversion in the sky, 

For those who greatly think, or bravely die? 

—Alexander Pope, "Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady"

Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light; I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night. 

For I wondered that others, subject to death, did live, since he whom I loved, as if he should never die, was dead; and I wondered yet more that myself, who was to him a second self, could live, he being dead. Well said one of his friends, "Thou half of my soul"; for I felt that my soul and his soul were one soul in two bodies": and therefore was my life a horror to me, because I would not live halved. And therefore perchance I feared to die, lest he whom I had much loved should die wholly. 

Into fit moulds prepared; from which he formed 

First his own tools; then, what might else be wrought 

You call it hope —that fire of fire! It is but agony of desire.

And choice of good and ill before me set 

Would I accept the pleasure with the pain 

— Augusta, Lady Gregory, "If the Past Year Were Offered Me Again"

Wiktoria Balcerak

My 13th reason and my roman empire. No words can describe what I feel for this book and for these characters 

nany

this one hurt so much but it was good and at the end my babies were happy

clau☁️

if someone finds little pieces of a shattered heart around please let me know because they’re mine

Ellie M.

** spoiler alert **
           I couldn't eat for days because of the ending lmfao. It's one of the most painful epilogues I've ever read in my entire life and up to this day I still can't read the ending without crying. Herongraystairs love for each other is astronomical. BEST LOVE TRIANGLE TROPE EVER WRITTEN. LOVED IT AND HATE IT AT THE SAME TIME FOR MAKING ME CRY. 

****

I am so sad because Jem was never IN HIS LIFE ever prepared to see Will die. Between the two of them, it was a silent truth that Jem will be the one to go first, so being at Will's deathbed was like a blow to him, making him realize the fact that Will was not immortal and that someday he would die and it will only be him and Tessa from now on.

The ending was a shock to me because I never thought Jem would be relieved of being a Silent Brother after 130 years. And throughout all those years, he remained who he is because of his love for Will and Tessa. 

***
I wanted more Gideon and Sophie moments. 
I wanted more Gabriel and Cecily moments.

Updated review: 06/21/2022

I have no words to describe how painful this was to read. And I need therapy because this book FINISHED me. I feel like I was ripped apart then sewn back together. My love for these characters? THROUGH THE ROOF. I literally could not eat for days, suffered a fever from crying so hard, and had to go on like nothing happened. NOTHING. Like it didn’t give mental illness just from that Epilogue.

When seventeen-year-old orphaned shapechanger Tessa Gray is kidnapped by the villainous Mortmain in his final bid for power, the London Institute rallies to save her, but is beset by danger and betrayal at every turn.

Monicap

LAST READ: april 30, 2013
5/5 for the epic feels, the laughter followed by the crying then the laughing whilst crying, then the sobbing, then the smiles, then AN ENGLISH MAJOR BEING REDUCED TO SPEAKING IN GIBBERISH, then the sobbing, then the uncontrollable shaking (in anger) then the more crying, then the smiling and the laughing, then the good feeling in my heart, then my heart being torn out of my chest.
Wow, Cassandra Clare. Five days of a TOTAL emotional roller coaster.

the following spoiler catcher REALLY DOES contain spoilers. If you have not read the LAST PAGE of CP2, do not look into the spoiler catcher.
(view spoiler)[I am not okay with this. I’m just freaking not. 

So, what? Jem died, but he wasn’t dead. HE became a Silent Brother and for some UNKNOWN reason, when you become a Silent Brother, you have to change your name. WHY IS THAT? Explain it to me, Cassandra Clare. If that was just for the sole purpose of throwing us off to the fact that it was Jem, I WILL MURDER YOU. (not really, I want to read TLH). So then, Tessa and Will got married, and I had happy feels. And then, EPILOGUE: 2008. that was, what, six years ago? And now, Tessa reflects, telling us about how Will is dead and what happened and how EVERYONE else is dead, and just Cassie Clare making me cry again. And then we’ve got Jem coming up, and, whoops! surprise: He’s actually Jem! He’s not a Silent Brother anymore. WTF? Apparently, they found a cure for his Yin Fen addiction. They found a cure! Jem says: “Another story of Lightwoods and Herondales and Fairchilds.”
Um, TMI anybody? Did I miss something, or does this happen if CoHF?
Also, um, another Thing. First we had Tessa and Jem Engaged. And I was okay with that. I was excited. But then he died. And I wasn’t okay with that. I said “I almost wish he was a Silent Brother instead!” And then, just as got used to him being dead, BAM! He’s a Silent Brother, and I’m not okay with that, and I’m like “He might as well be dead!” and now it’s about 130 years later, and he’s not a Silent Brother, and he’s not dead, but Will is and now he’s kissing Tessa, AND I’M NOT OKAY WITH THAT.
And, omigod, I just realized in TLH he’ll probably be a Silent Brother again. Why do you play volleyball with my heart, Cassandra Clare? Don’t I already hurt enough? (hide spoiler)]

The way I didn’t realize just how much of this book I had taken into myself when I read it years ago. I read it and I read myself in the pages. This series really hits, it was good when I was 13 and it’s good now.

Lexi

Vicky  Nuñez 

To be truthful the ending was predictable, I knew what was going to happen before I even started reading the book and I think Cassandra Clare knew this which is why she inserted that amazing epilogue. I think it brought the perfect closure to the series and it made up for its predictability.

Hands down one of the best endings to a trilogy.

Nabila Azahra

OMG OMG OMG OMG this was such a roller coaster 😩 This book... I can’t even write how I’m feeling right now 😭😍

akynn 

i don’t know how I’m going to go back to the mortal instruments after this

P.S I LOVE THEM SO MUCH I CANT GO ON WITHOUT THEM😭😭

5 stars for the epilogue bc jem >>>>> ugly will 

minus .5 star for will and tessa scenes that i literally skipped (so glad i skipped them all like they did not happen), another -.5 for long-winded will and bailos scenes that i also skipped

minus one full star for cecily the unwarranted, unnecessary inserted character having more exposure than will jem tessa combined

wouldnt have finished this under a day without skipping so much pages, but i cried with every jem scenes + (jem with tessa) so there goes a star i guess 😒

hanni

5 stars for the epilogue bc jem >>>>> ugly will 

5 stars for letting will d--

minus .5 star for will and tessa scenes that i literally skipped (so glad i skipped them all like they did not happen), another -.5 for long-winded will and bailos scenes that i also skipped

minus one full star for cecily the unwarranted, unnecessary inserted character having more exposure than will jem tessa combined

wouldnt have finished this under a day without skipping so much pages, but i cried with every jem scenes + (jem with tessa) so there goes a star i guess 😒

book 2 was the best :>

Julie Rubens

I love this book so much! It’s beautifully written with so much love! Cassandra Clare is an incredible writer and I can’t wait to read her other books!

Mel 

Julia Lundberg 

Tatiana

Clockwork Princess: 5/5

Each and every Infernal Device book is better than its predecessor. This book is utterly perfect in every single way. I absolutely love it down to my very bones.

The amount of love I have for Tessa, Will, and Jem is UNHEALTHY. This book is painful but in the best way possible, and I even read it on Valentine's day. Cue the waterworks folks.

I had no idea I would get this attached to the Shadowhunter series and I am so glad I stuck with it to get to this truly wonderful book. The plot is amazing as usual, and of course, Cassandra Clare writes beautifully. This is not news, but the way she depicts and paints these characters in the context of their surroundings is truly unique to her universe is astounding. 

The love triangle between Tessa, Will, and Jem is the best love triangle I have ever read. It's not full of pain, but true love all for one another. I have never encountered this in a book before. It's the way I was crying tears of joy and sadness at the same time for me.

This series is a journey and I have just found out the series converge into one within TMI part two. I am so excited to continue this journey with the characters I have completely fallen in love with. 

Everything about this book is absolutely amazing, and if you're struggling to get through TMI part one, let me tell you it is so worth it to get to this book (and clockwork prince before it). I am truly so excited to pick up the next book in this series. I just cannot get enough.

Julia Moran 

Sheesh I'm bawling my eyes out over here... I honestly didn't know what to expect out of the epilogue, like I've always heard everyone say how they couldn't stop crying but I didn't know what the hell to expect but holy hell I DIDN'T EXPECT THIS I LOVED IT SO MUCH HELP.
I adored this book and the trilogy in general. When I started re-reading clockwork angel I did it with the intention of reading it just to close a chapter in my life as Nephilim and thought I wasn't gonna read more of the shadowhunters but now I know I'm gonna fucking read every last book of this fucking universe, however long it takes me. (I think I'm even gonna re-read the 4 or 5 books of the original saga I read like six years ago because I don't remember shit).

Anlo Dumalaog

** spoiler alert **
           my review spoilers: too much tears and sobbing. 

i've never felt a rollercoaster feeling and so much crying when i finished a book series. 

i love tessa and will and jem. jem is a pure-hearted cinnamon roll. and will is so selfless and his self-sacrificing to save tessa for jem (and his, even he couldn't tell it out loud). how could i'm not fall in love with them? how??? and when tessa changed to angel ithuriel i felt awe about her sacrifice. all good characters in this book was made their own sacrifice—even gabriel and gideon. 

summary: i was sobbing, and still sobbing when i remember particular scenes in this book. trust me, prepare tissues and lock yourself in your bedroom while you read.

TID SERIES IS AN EXCELLENCE

Anna

This book was absolutely amazing but the ending broke my heart

ayessa

My heart did not handle this book well. Prepare for tissues when you reach to the last few chapters. I am dead.

Geoffrey Froggatt

Shadowhunter books are like a trashy CW show you can’t help but love. I liked the setting in this trilogy. My main problem with Cassandra Clare’s books is that there are far too many characters and far too many are similar to one another. I felt myself searching up Shadowhunter family trees in order to understand who was who. The constant letters throughout the book sometimes slowed down the plot, even though they were meant to advance it. As much as I had problems with this book, I was still invested in the Will, Tessa and Jem dynamic.

Wiktoria Balcerak &
Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

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